Hindutva and Anti-Muslim Communal Violence in India Under

195 Pages·2014·1.09 MB·English

by  Elaisha Nandrajog

Claremont Colleges
Scholarship @ Claremont
CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship
2010
Hindutva and Anti-Muslim Communal Violence
in India Under the Bharatiya Janata Party
(1990-2010)
Elaisha Nandrajog
Claremont McKenna College
Recommended Citation
Nandrajog, Elaisha, "Hindutva and Anti-Muslim Communal Violence in India Under the Bharatiya Janata Party (1990-2010)" (2010).
CMC Senior Theses.Paper 219.
http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/219
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CLAREMONT McKENNA COLLEGE

HINDUTVA AND ANTI-MUSLIM COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN INDIA
UNDER THE BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY (1990-2010)

SUBMITTED TO

PROFESSOR RODERIC CAMP AND PROFESSOR GASTÓN ESPINOSA

AND

DEAN GREGORY HESS

BY

ELAISHA NANDRAJOG

FOR

SENIOR THESIS

(Spring 2010)

APRIL 26, 2010
2
CONTENTS

Preface 02
List of Abbreviations 03
Timeline 04

Introduction 07

Chapter 1 13
Origins of Hindutva

Chapter 2 41
Setting the Stage: Precursors to the Bharatiya Janata Party

Chapter 3 60
Bharat: The India of the Bharatiya Janata Party

Chapter 4 97
Mosque or Temple? The Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi Dispute

Chapter 5 122
Modi and his Muslims: The Gujarat Carnage

Chapter 6 151
Legalizing Communalism: Prevention of Terrorist Activities
Act (2002)

Conclusion 166

Appendix 180
Glossary 185
Bibliography 188
3
PREFACE

This thesis assesses the manner in which India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has
emerged as the political face of Hindutva, or Hindu ethno-cultural nationalism. The
insights of scholars like Christophe Jaffrelot, Ashish Nandy, Thomas Blom Hansen,
Ram Puniyani, Badri Narayan, and Chetan Bhatt have been instrumental in furthering
my understanding of the manifold elements of Hindutva ideology. I am grateful to
Anil Padmanabhan, co-editor of Mint newspaper in New Delhi, whose guidance
during my summer internship in 2009 exposed me to the predominant debates on
Hindu nationalism. I appreciate the inputs of Kimberly Franklin at the Honnold-Mudd
library of the Claremont Colleges. Our numerous meetings pointed me to a range of
authors and online sources.
I thank Professor Gastón Espinosa, whose class, Religion, Politics, and Global
Violence, introduced me to the inextricable connections between faith and political
power. His enthusiasm is infectious. Working with him on this thesis helped me wade
through the seemingly endless writing process. I am indebted to Professor Roderic
Camp, whose feedback and encouragement during the past year was invaluable in
defining the scope and direction of this analysis. He has been truly wonderful as a
reader, and even more so as a mentor.
4
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ABVP Akhil Bharatiya Vidhya Parishad (All
India Student’s Organization)
AIADMK All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam
BJP Bharatiya Janata Party
BJS Bharatiya Jan Sangh
BSP Bahujan Samaj Party
CBSE Central Board of Secondary Education
CPI (M) Communist Party of India (Marxist)
DMK Dravida Munnetra Kazagham
MDMK Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam
INC Indian National Congress/ Congress Party
JD Janata Dal
NDA National Democratic Alliance
NCERT National Council of Educational Research
and Training
OBC Other Backward Classes
RSS Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
RSS* Rashtriya Sevika Samiti
SC Scheduled Castes
ST Scheduled Tribes
SP Samajwadi Party
UCC Uniform Civil Code
UPA United Progressive Alliance
VHP Vishva Hindu Parishad
VKA Vanavasi Kalayan Ashrama
5

TIMELINE
Landmarks in Indian History

1526-1858

Mughal rule in India

1858-1947

India under British rule

1947-89

August 15, 1947: Indian independence from British rule

January 26, 1950: Indian Constitution enforced

1967: Congress Party defeated in nine states

1969: Congress splits into two: Indian National Congress (Congress I) and Congress
Organization (Congress O)

• Radical turn in Congress-bank nationalization
• Garibi hato (end poverty) policy

1971: Bangladesh attains independence from Pakistan. India sends troops to assist
Bangladesh.

1974: Total Revolution, a movement initiated in the state of Bihar by Gandhian
leader Jay Prakash Narayan, spreads across north India.

• Allahabad High Court judgment on corrupt electoral practices of Indira
Gandhi-led Congress government leads to National Emergency.

1975-77: Government declares Emergency

1977-79: Congress defeated. Janata Party government assumes power.

• Democracy restored after Emergency

• July 1979- Janata government collapses
6

1980-88: Decade of turbulence because of separatist movements in Punjab and the
northeast

• 1980- Indira Gandhi inaugurates another decade of Congress rule.

• June 1984- Operation Blue Star launched by Congress. Indian army moves into
Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, to flush out terrorists. Involves gun battle
and attack on the Sikh place of worship. Leaves 550 dead.

• October 1984- Congress-sponsored massacre of Sikhs. Indira Gandhi
assassinated by Sikh bodyguards.

• December 1984- Congress wins parliamentary elections due to “sympathy
vote” after Indira Gandhi’s death. Rajiv Gandhi becomes Prime Minister.

• 1986- Government passes Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Divorce
Act. Overturns Supreme Court judgment on Shah Bano case.

• 1987- India deploys the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka

1989-2010

1989: Congress defeated following widespread allegations of corruption.

• National Front government under V.P. Singh wins elections with BJP support

1990: Mandal Commission Report implemented. Indian troops withdrawn from Sri
Lanka.

1991: National Front government falls as BJP withdraws support following the first
major attempt to demolish the Babri mosque. Congress returns to power.

• Rajiv Gandhi assassinated by Tamil suicide bomber

• Structural Adjustment Program initiated under International Monetary Fund
(IMF)

1992: Babri mosque demolished due to Hindu right-wing mobilization.

1996: Congress defeated in national elections. BJP emerges as single largest party in
Parliament. Is unable to garner support of other parties to form a coalition.
Congress-led United Front government supported by leftists takes over.
7
1998: BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) takes power at the Center (union
level). India detonates three nuclear bombs. South Asian arms race begins.

2002: Godra train attack on February 27, 2002 causes riots in the north western state
of Gujarat. 2,000 Muslims perish. 100,000 women and children are displaced.

2004: BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition loses to Congress-led
United Progressive Alliance (UPA)

2008: Mumbai terrorist attacks leave 175 persons dead
8
INTRODUCTION

On May 16, 1998, under the directives of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP)-led coalition, the Indian government detonated three nuclear bombs in the
Rajasthan desert, near a site called Pokhran.1 If the name of India’s inter-ballistic
missile, Agni, the god of fire in the Vedic tradition, is inscribed in antiquity, its
symbolism in 1998 was entirely new, reflecting the rise of a political party that
emblematizes a chauvinistic, majoritarian stance.2
To celebrate India’s accomplishment, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a
sister organization of the BJP, ordered the construction of a temple dedicated to
Shakti, the goddess of strength, some fifty kilometers away from the testing site.3 The
decision is an apt example of Hindutva ideologues’ use of the feminine metaphor of
“innate strength” to legitimize aggression against external forces. Shortly after the
nuclear tests, Bal Thackerey, the chairman of the Shiv Sena, a Mumbai-based Hindu
nationalist ally of the BJP, declared that Hindus were no longer eunuchs—a notion
that traces its roots back to the Mughal period which spanned three centuries.4
Thackerey’s statement ironically subverted the idea of female power and reiterated the
masculinist theme that has animated Hindu nationalism since its inception in the

1 Chetan Bhatt, “Introduction,” in Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths (Oxford:
Berg Publishers, 2001), 1-2.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 The Mughal period in India lasted from 1526 AD to 1858 AD. See footnote 15 for citation.
9
1920s. Hindutva’s sacralization of aggression had an anticipated consequence:
Pakistan retaliated by exploding five nuclear bombs on May 28, 1998.5
The names of both countries’ missiles, Agni, the Vedic god of fire, and Ghauri,
the famous Muslim conqueror,6 make real the monumental conflict between
primordial Hinduism and medieval Islam that votaries of Hindu nationalism consider
central to their political agenda.7
The Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 reinstated the animosity between
Islam and Hinduism, giving a new lease of life to the Hindutva cause.8 In
contemporary India, where Hindus constitute about 80.5 percent of the total
population, followed by Muslims (13.4 percent), Christians (2.3 percent), Sikhs (1.9
percent), Buddhists (0.8 percent), Jains (0.4 percent), and others (0.7 percent),9 this
legacy is encapsulated in the struggle between the dominant Hindu majority and a
comparatively belittled Islamic community. In its capacity as the second most
powerful national party with a voter base of about twenty-five percent of India’s
population, the BJP has emerged as the most powerful organization for promoting the
Hindu nationalist voice.10
This study aims at assessing the dynamics of Hindutva, or Hindu ethno-
cultural nationalism, in the politics of the BJP from 1990 to 2010. It analyzes the inter-

5 Bhatt, Hindu Nationalism, 1-2.
6 The name Ghauri comes from the famous Afghan ruler Muhammad Ghauri, known to have invaded
India seventeen times between the 11th and 12th centuries. The missile is also referred to as Hatf V,
which was the sword used by Prophet Muhammad. See footnote 1 for citation.
7 Bhatt, Hindu Nationalism, 3.
8 Ibid.
9 For citation and further information, see table 1, pie chart 1, and map 3 in appendix.
10 As of 2010, the BJP possesses 116 of 552 seats in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Indian Parliament),
and 55 of 250 seats in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of Indian Parliament). For more information, see
table 2 and map 1 in appendix. See footnote 1 for citation.